How I Met Your Mother "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?" Review: A Modern Family

After last week's less-than-stellar episode of How I Met Your Mother spent half an hour treading water, the show bounced back tonight with "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?," which saw Ted, Robin, and Barney competing in a game show-like contest to determine who would be Marvin’s godparent in the event of Marshall and Lily’s deaths. It didn’t really advance the HIMYM mythology, but it was a lot of fun.

The core of HIMYM has always been the bond shared by Ted, Robin, Barney, Marshall, and Lily. Their inside jokes and ridiculous stories are what’s held HIMYM together for over seven seasons. Last week’s episode not only failed to give us an interesting story, it also wandered away from the characters we love. HIMYM is at its best when we get to see how this group of friends pokes fun at each other, shares tales from their childhoods, and just hangs out. Watching the showrunners try to cram a caricatured Victoria and a one-dimensional Nick into the show was the opposite of legendary. It was awful.

But as I said above, "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?" was fun. The plot was simple, but we were reminded not only how neurotic these characters are, but also how much they honestly consider each other family. After Ted, Robin, and Barney each spent days trying to bribe Marshall and Lily into choosing them to be Marvin’s godparent, Marshall came up with a solution that would solve all of his problems: Create a game show that would give his friends the chance to explain how they would react to parenting scenarios, buy Lily a new dress (“I’m pretty again!”), and, oh yeah, let Marshall show off his amazing skills.

We got a good look at the first three "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?" scenarios: "Our Demise," which asked the gang to explain how they would tell Marvin about his parents’ death; "Discipline," which posed the scenario of Marvin stealing another kid’s toy; and "Birds and Bees," which, well, was pretty self-explanatory. Of course, each contestant had their own style of answers. Barney had every intention of raising Marvin to be a chip off the ol’ Barnacle, wearing suits and loving fancy belts. Robin’s thoughts on raising a child stemmed from her own tough-love upbringing. And Ted? Well, Ted was going to rely on Professor Infosaurus, a singing and rapping dinosaur puppet that I want to see more of on the show. Classic Ted.

The gang eventually got fed up with Marshall’s game, pointing out that because of the eight-or-higher rule of importance that Marshall and Lily had established when Marvin was born, the couple no longer cared about the rest group. Once their friends had left the apartment, Marshall and Lily realized that even though they were ready to choose a godparent, they didn’t know anything about their friends’ current lives. Marshall and Lily asked Lily’s dad to babysit and met everyone else at MacLaren’s. Drinks were had. Stories were shared. No one left until they'd closed the bar down. I wasn’t surprised when Marshall and Lily named Ted, Robin, and Barney as Marvin’s godparents, but it was still a touching moment. After an episode where HIMYM seemed to forget who the friends we cared about were, Marshall and Lily remembered who their friends were.

Here’s what I propose now: If a HIMYM episode can’t advance the show’s mythology, if it can’t get us closer to Ted meeting the infamous mother, it should be an episode like "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?." I love episodes like "Farhampton," the season premiere that moved Ted closer to finding his wife than he had ever been. I also love episodes that remind us that these characters interact with their friends the same way I interact with my own friends. We all have our inside jokes and group quirks. This is why HIMYM means so much to many of us. We see ourselves in these characters. We don’t see ourselves in Victoria or Nick. They don’t mean anything to us. Let’s get through the Autumn of Break-ups, drop the dead weight, and focus on the characters we love. Our time together is growing shorter, and I don’t want to waste it on what doesn’t matter anymore.

NOTES & QUOTES

– While I like to avoid Victoria and Nick as much as possible, Ted and Robin’s issues with their significant others were funny. Ted would allow himself to get roped into paying Victoria’s dad for the wedding she bailed on, wouldn’t he?

– Didn’t Marshall’s brother Marcus learn anything from the episode of Boy Meets World where Corey wanted to remain on his honeymoon and make a living selling coconuts carved to look like faces? Marcus’s dream of being a mixologist in paradise just isn’t realistic.

– Robin on the idea of Ted raising Marvin: “If you want him to be raised by his underwear on a flagpole, Ted is your guy.”

– It looks like Robin has come full circle on the idea of having children, from her Season 1 stance of never wanting kids to now jockeying for the rights to be Marvin’s godparent. I guess that sock from Season 4’s "Not a Father’s Day" changed Robin’s outlook on offspring.

– Barney singing his own version of "The Wheels on the Bus" at Marshall’s door: “The boobs on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down...” [Marshall closed door, paused, then opened the door again.] Barney: “...all through the town …”

– Marshall introducing the game of "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?" to his friends: “I just wanted to make the idea of Lily and me dying fun.”

– The teddy bear gag absolutely got me, especially when the toy reached a size that was too big for Robin to even pull it through the apartment door, leaving her sprawled out on the floor. Nice touch bringing the giant teddy bear back to show Lily crying into it. I guess the Marshpillow has some company now.

OMG, what an awful episode! I am feeling really sad because if this is the show's last season, its a shame it is wasting time on such crappy episodes?! While the idea of the Who Wants To Be A Godparent is very HIMYM material, the way it was executed in this episode was anything but legendary. AT. ALL. The questions were stupid, the characters' responses - lame. Also what was the point of bringing back Victoria if we see 10 seconds of her every episode? And like 5 of Nick? They should have made this season about Ted maybe finally giving up on the idea of finding the one to actually surprise the viewers when he actually meets her. Ugh, why is this happening!

The only thing that made me smile during the entire episode was Barney's ringtone. I find it quite interesting that for a second episode in a row only a ringtone makes me laugh.

HIMYM's writers have completely lost it. Whoever doesn't see that is on the same page as the writers. I'm sorry, Bill, but if this episode was "a lot of fun" to you, then first season was probably The Godfather of sitcoms. The characters have become caricatures of themselves, this show should have ended a long time ago, but you gotta milk the cow till there's not a single drop left.

I feel like they tried to add some drama the last two seasons and now they want to bring the all-comedy feeling of the show back, when it should have been the other way around.

I didn't really like this one. While last weeks was a bore at least that had a nice heart warming ending.

This offered me nothing. Apart from the same frustration directed at Marshall and Lily. I'm sure there's a way to describe this more accurately but can someone tell these two to GROW UP! Last season it got to me by the end that the pregnancy was largely played for laughs, which is fine, but it was such constant wackyness really started to grate. It carried over to the first few episodes this season and now when they try to be serious they still come off more negative than they should be.

Robin wanting to be Marvin's godparent. I don't think that is out of character. She's competitive, She wants to win. Even for something like this.

Hey, nice Boy Meets World reference! I'll even forgive you for misspelling Cory's name. I know. I'm such a Topanga. Fun episode, but 2 things about Marshall & Lily. 1) I don't think they would drift that far from their friends. Especially Ted. And 2) Having a baby really does change your relationship with your single friends. They can't close down McClaren's anymore (except occasionally). Their friends should expect these changes and all of them need to find new, comfortable places for their relationships.

Another horrible episode. Totally unfunny and the whole idea with the wheel was just puerile and stupid. I can't believe what they have done with Victoria who has always been one of the most mature persons on the show. No way she would behave the way she does now. She would be a slob without Ted not noticed before, like in the previous episode ?

The show is really going downhill. I didn't think it could get any worse than the Zoey and the Captain thing, but here we are.

I don't get the obsession with trying to advance the HIMYM mythology. Who cares who the mother is? The entire Bob Saget narrating from the future gimmick is the worst thing about this show. You could just call it 5 People Living in NY and forget the storytelling, and the show would be just as good.

I didn't like this episode at all, except for Marshall's performance as gameshow host and Lily's gown. Not only did we get nowhere with the overarching arc, but everybody was written in this over-amplified stereotype of their characters. Ted, Robin, and Barney as a group would make horrible godparents and seems impossible to affect legally. Nick and Victoria's storylines were also over-amped stereotypes and ones not based on their existing characters at all. Victoria's dad wanting money from Ted is utter nonsense since the husband ran out of the ceremony as well. I didn't laugh most of the time, it was arm-foldingly annoying, and most of the writing was out of the Sitcom 101 textbook, the one from the '90s that's all dogeared and messed up.

I though it was good old-fashioned HIMYM, it was funny, it didn't advance the story but it made me laugh. Unlike last week which was filler but not good filler, I enjoyed this weeks filler. Though I thought it was wierd that Marshall and Lily even though it was an option for Barney to be the guardian, but I still enjoy how it ended. I so want to make a Professor Infosaurus for my kids one day.

I don't understand the thing about Ted owing the father money. Didn't the GROOM leave the wedding too? So even without Ted's interference the wedding was still a no-go. In which case, the father should be working it out with the groom. perhaps asking the groom to go 50% with him.

As for Ted, it was the BRIDE that decided to run away. She left the wedding in her dress to have drinks with her ex. Then decided to not get married. Ted tried to play the good guy and talk her into the wedding again, but decided he wanted her for himself.

Robin thought she was pregnant last season, and cried bitterly on a park bench after her doctor told her she's infertile.

When you watch the show closely you can see a development in Robins character.

At first, she hated kids, but then she found that little sock mentioned in the article, dated a guy with a kid (and was sad when she found out the father dated another woman and that the kid liked her more), wanted to have kids with Ted in Argentina, and last but not least loved Marvin instantly...

But: She broke up with her shrink some episodes later, because she never wanted to have kids and he did. He offered to adopt since she told him she was not physically able to get pregnant. But she said, that she just did not want having kids at all.

I would agree. It was a fun episode, even if we didn't get close to the mother. And the episode accomplished the only thing I ever ask the show to: Pick me up after a crappy day. I can always count on these guys to change my mood.

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